Chapter 189: Floor 17 Hidden (6)

As soon as I released time stop, I sensed people coming down underground.

I looked back at the God-Slaying Sword.

...Looks like I'll have to break the seal.

CLANG!

I slammed the Gatekeeper of Heaven's Sword into the magical seal surrounding the God-Slaying Sword.

After striking it several times with all my strength, the seal finally shattered, unable to withstand the power of the Heavenly Aura Blade.

I caught the God-Slaying Sword as it fell.

Can I store this in subspace?

I tried, and it worked. I put the God-Slaying Sword into subspace.

Almost immediately afterward, the others arrived.

“What in the...!”

The demons were horrified by the sight of the completely destroyed treasury.

I spoke to the old butler, who was at least a familiar face among them.

“Grand Duke Keilteir did this. He stole the God-Slaying Sword.”

The God-Slaying Sword was actually in my subspace, but this made the situation much easier to explain.

“Yes, we know! Right now, the Keilteir family's combatants and the followers of the Bahel Church are attacking the Demon King's castle...!”

Fortunately, Keilteir had apparently caused such a massive commotion outside that I didn't have to deal with anyone mistakenly suspecting me.

I spoke urgently.

“We need to cross into the Demon Realm right now. The ritual to revive the War Demon God is going to begin. It may already be underway. Is there a mage here who can send me to the Demon Realm?”

From what Gakil had told me, a mage of the 5th circle or higher, or something like that, could use dimensional travel magic to cross into the Demon Realm.

Another old man among the gathered demons stepped forward.

“Th-the only mage in the castle right now capable of calculating the dimensional coordinates of the War Demon God's remains is probably me. But if I cast dimensional travel magic alone, I can only send one or two people at most...”

“Then just send me right away! I'll go stop them!”

There was one problem, though.

Gakil had clearly said that humans faced such severe dimensional resistance when entering the Demon Realm that they couldn't withstand it...

I don't know. Maybe the Armor of Karma can handle it?

Either way, I had to cross over myself.

The fact that I still hadn't received the clear completion message meant there was more than a ninety-nine percent chance that something was happening near the War Demon God's remains. I was almost certain of it.

The mage exchanged a glance with the butler, then nodded.

“Very well. Give me thirty minutes.”

Fuck, why does it take so damn long?

Do you guys have to spend forever concentrating just to cast one spell too?

While the other demons hurried around in a frenzy, the mage closed his eyes and clasped his hands together, apparently preparing the spell.

I waited anxiously for him to finish.

Time passed.

“...It's ready! I'll send you now!”

The mage opened his eyes and cast the spell.

A murky energy gathered around me, and the space itself began to ripple.

My Sixth Sense screamed a warning.

I immediately activated the Armor of Karma.

If it looks like I can't take it... I'll just use Radiant Incarnation too.

RUMBLE!

My vision shook violently from the vibrations.

Fortunately, even the dimensional resistance couldn't break through the Armor of Karma's defenses.

My vision finally steadied.

I looked around.

I found myself in a purple, zero-gravity void.

It seemed I'd made it into the Demon Realm safely.

“...!”

A sudden chill ran through me.

It was an utterly alien presence unlike anything I'd ever felt before, something I couldn't even begin to describe.

My expression hardened as I moved forward using Air Walk.

Something came into view in the distance.

Dozens of men were prostrating themselves around something.

Are they performing the ritual...?!

I rushed toward them and unleashed Wind Arrow Barrage, piercing all of their arms and legs.

“Ghk...!”

“Kiaaagh!”

The men went tumbling through the air, screaming in pain.

None of them were particularly strong. They were all fodder.

I looked at whatever they had been bowing to.

“...”

It was the dried, shriveled corpse of a demon, almost like a mummy.

Its body was about the size of an ordinary person's, with four enormous ram-like horns curling from its head.

Is this... the War Demon God's remains?

This was the source of that alien presence.

I swallowed without realizing it.

The longer I looked at it, the more some primal part of me recoiled, urging me to look away.

‘Has it... not been revived yet?’

The War Demon God's corpse floated upright in midair, its eyes closed.

Had I managed to get here before the ritual was completed?

I quickly swept my gaze over the area.

If my guess was right, these guys should have another divine artifact besides the God-Slaying Sword...

But I couldn't see anything.

‘Demon King.’

- There's nothing.

The Demon King couldn't sense anything containing divinity either.

...Nothing? Why?

Puzzled, I looked over the men I'd subdued.

Then what had these guys been doing?

Were they just guarding the remains?

I grabbed one of the men by the collar and demanded,

“What were you doing here? Answer me.”

The man, still writhing from the pain of his pierced limbs, opened his mouth.

“Haaah... Hehehe... Did Keilteir's group fail...?”

He muttered, his eyes unfocused and glazed over.

“But... it's already too late... He is coming... He is...”

I frowned.

“What do you mean, it's too late? As long as I'm guarding this place, you won't be able to try the ritual again. Grand Duke Keilteir is dead too. I killed him myself.”

...Even as I said it, an ominous feeling began to creep over me.

I still hadn't received the clear completion message.

The man bared his blood-soaked gums in a chilling grin.

“The ritual... was already completed days ago...”

“...What?”

“We only wanted to obtain the God-Slaying Sword too... so that his resurrection would be more complete... He showed us mercy by waiting... the Demon God did... Hehehe...”

What the fuck is this bullshit?

The Demon King shouted urgently.

- ...Behind you!

I whipped around.

The War Demon God's corpse was staring silently at me, its eyes now wide open.

“...!”

Like a frog frozen before a snake.

For a moment, both my body and mind locked up.

“Ahh, Demon God...! Take everything from us! Mercy! Salvaaaaaation...!”

WHOOOOSH!

Red energy was ripped from the men's bodies, and they shriveled into husks in an instant.

The energy was drawn into the War Demon God.

I forced myself to stay conscious and stopped time.

‘Ah...’

Only then did I understand.

I finally understood what the Tower had meant by the increase in difficulty.

No matter what I did, the War Demon God had been going to revive from the very beginning.

I'd faced death dozens of times while clearing Nightmare difficulty...

But I'd never felt danger this overwhelming before.

My instincts told me there was no mistaking it.

The being before me existed on an entirely different level.

- Get a hold of yourself.

The Demon King's voice reached me.

...I'd never been this grateful for my Time Stop ability.

With as much time as I needed, I worked to shake off the overwhelming pressure that had made me recoil in fear.

- This situation is about as fucking bad as it gets. Still, we've got no choice but to fight and bring him down.

‘...How?’

- He's not quite a full god. Think of him as closer to a demigod. Our chances aren't zero. Use the God-Slaying Sword.

...Right, the God-Slaying Sword.

Hadn't they said the War Demon God died after the God-Slaying Sword pierced his heart?

If I used that same method, it might work.

I had to drive the God-Slaying Sword through the War Demon God's heart one more time.

If I wanted to survive, if I wanted to clear this floor...

I had to pull it off.

Once I'd steeled myself, I released Time Stop.

The moment I pulled the God-Slaying Sword out of subspace...

WHOOOOSH!

I unleashed Diul's Pitch-Black Fog.

Inside the fog, I used Phantom Shift and moved directly in front of the War Demon God.

Then I thrust the sword at his heart.

“...”

A surprise attack with everything I had.

I stared at the War Demon God's hand, which was gripping the upper part of the blade.

The sword's point had stopped dead just short of his heart.

He'd stopped it.

Not only had Diul's Sensory Block failed to work...

I hadn't even perceived the War Demon God moving.

I couldn't afford to waste even a moment being stunned.

I immediately made my next move.

I tried to use Subspace to put away the God-Slaying Sword, which refused to budge. But...

THUNK!

A jolt ran through the God-Slaying Sword, making it tremble.

Subspace failed to activate properly.

‘What...’

The Demon King's urgent voice rang out.

- Abandon the sword!

At that exact moment, my vision flipped upside down.

My upper body went flying through the air.

Agony hit me, and a beat too late, I realized I'd been cut in half.

“...!!”

I stopped time.

Before I knew it, the War Demon God was holding the God-Slaying Sword he'd taken from me.

He'd swung it and cut me in half at the waist.

‘Fuck...!’

Neither Sixth Sense nor Supreme Combat Sense had activated. Why?

And why hadn't Subspace worked? Had the War Demon God done something?

WHOOOOSH!

I released Time Stop and immediately activated Radiant Incarnation.

My bisected body transformed into light and fused back together.

I shot away from the War Demon God at light speed, then handed control of my body over to the Demon King.

My attempt to stab his heart with the God-Slaying Sword had failed.

Worse, he'd taken the sword from me in an instant.

I'd been completely helpless, but now all I could do was leave things to the Demon King.

- ?? ????? ? ??? ?????????????...

A wave of freezing cold swept across the space.

The Demon King attacked with full force from the very start.

Just as he had during the fight against Seri, the figure of a giant appeared and brought its greatsword down on the War Demon God.

BOOOOOOM!!

The War Demon God simply reached out a hand.

The greatsword stopped dead against his palm.

Perhaps because of the collision between two tremendous forces, the space around the point of impact seemed to warp strangely.

...It wasn’t getting through.

The War Demon God blocked the Demon King's magic with one hand without so much as flinching.

After absorbing all of the men's life force, the War Demon God's body had already regained its vitality.

A spiral of light resembling a nebula or galaxy appeared behind him.

At that moment.

CRACK-

A massive diagonal slash appeared across space.

Along its path, both the giant summoned by the Demon King and my body were split in half.

‘...Huh?’

Even Radiant Incarnation's damage immunity was useless.

The unknown power contained in that strike had forcibly dispelled Radiant Incarnation itself.

Once again, neither Sixth Sense nor Supreme Combat Sense had activated.

Forced back into my original body, with my upper and lower halves separated once again, I stopped time.

- Damn it.

The Demon King let out a bitter sigh.

Radiant Incarnation, which had always made me practically invincible, and even the Demon King's power were completely useless against the War Demon God.

The difference between us was so overwhelming that I felt numb rather than despairing.

...Is this the power of a god?

This makes no sense.

How the hell am I supposed to beat something like this?

- Didn't I tell you? You shouldn't have accepted that proposal.

The Demon King spoke in a half-resigned tone.

- It's over. We lost.

His words snapped me back to my senses.

Is it really over?

Is everything going to end here because of my stupid arrogance?

...No. It's not over yet.

I couldn't just give up without a fight.

I released Time Stop.

The instant I did, I used Rapid Regeneration.

Before my upper and lower halves could completely separate, they rejoined, and the severed flesh healed in an instant.

Once I regained my balance, I steadied my breathing and stared at the War Demon God.

He was examining the God-Slaying Sword in his hand.

If I have any chance left, it's to drive that sword into his heart.

But before I could even think about stabbing him with it, I had to take the sword back first, and that already seemed impossible.

Whatever he'd done, even Subspace hadn't worked.

Then grayish-white energy began flowing out of the God-Slaying Sword and into the War Demon God.

Is he... absorbing the God-Slaying Sword's divinity?

The War Demon God spoke in an ordinary voice.

“As expected of the sword that once brought death to this body. I've only absorbed half of it, yet even that is taxing... Hm?”

The War Demon God suddenly made a puzzled sound and looked around.

I didn't let the opportunity slip away.

The moment he looked behind him, I kicked off the air with Air Walk.

I pulled Pankera's Crown out of subspace and put it on while simultaneously activating Phantom Shift.

My fingertips touched the War Demon God's body.

Just like with Seri, I'll drag this bastard into the mental world first, and then somehow...!

CRACK!

Pankera's Crown shattered on my head.

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